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The Longsword Chronicles #2
Sword and Circle
Book Two
With the Kings' Council at Ferdan reeling from the sight of Morloch and the shock of betrayal by wizards of the D'ith, the King of Raheen rides in haste once again to his devastated homeland. There, he hopes, the wizard Allazar will discover the reason for Morloch's dread on learning the true identity of the Longsword DarkSlayer, Gawain, King of Ashes. And there, he hopes, that reason, if revealed, can be used against Morloch and the dark armies of the north gathering in the wastelands beyond the farak gorin.
But some things are, perhaps, best left shrouded in the mists of myth. The nature of the conflict between the kindred races of Man and Morloch is about to change forever...
With the Kings' Council at Ferdan reeling from the sight of Morloch and the shock of betrayal by wizards of the D'ith, the King of Raheen rides in haste once again to his devastated homeland. There, he hopes, the wizard Allazar will discover the reason for Morloch's dread on learning the true identity of the Longsword DarkSlayer, Gawain, King of Ashes. And there, he hopes, that reason, if revealed, can be used against Morloch and the dark armies of the north gathering in the wastelands beyond the farak gorin.
But some things are, perhaps, best left shrouded in the mists of myth. The nature of the conflict between the kindred races of Man and Morloch is about to change forever...
306 pages, Paperback
First published May 23, 2012
11 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
G.J. Kelly
48 books32 followersGJ Kelly was born near the white cliffs of Dover, England, in 1960. He spent a significant part of his early life in various parts of the world, including the Far East, Middle East, the South Atlantic, and West Africa. Later life has seen him venture to the USA, New Zealand, Europe, and Ireland. He began writing while still at school, where he was president of the Debating Society and won the Robb Trophy for public speaking. He combined his writing with his technical skills as a professional Technical Author and later as an internal communications specialist. His first novel was "A Country Fly" and he is currently writing a new fantasy title.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 2, 2012
This series started as a fast paced story sort of blurring the lines between Young and Adult Fantasy but I think the author has started to lean towards the latter with the pacing seen within this book compared to the first.
The character interaction is significantly more prevalent which is something that was sorely lacking in the opening installment to the series. The price, however, is that there doesn't seem to be much happening at all.
The first book covers a span of two years. The protagonists' coming of age, initial wandering throughout the world, introduces many of the important characters within the world, and then the subsequent vengeful crusade, romance... etc. This book covers the characters travelling roughly one eighth the amount of the first, feels very short, and the entire thing can be summed up in about five sentences.
1) They set off something in Raheen that leaves Allazar with new knowledge/powers and grants Elayeen a new form of sight at the cost of her normal vision.
2) They slay some Morloch minions. Goth lord wizard bad guy, rhino thing, shapeshifter, another dark wizard guy.
3) They meet some refugees and honorable guards who they help escort to Jarn.
4) Elayeen is taken over by some cold indifference and essentially becomes a special pair of eyes with no personality - main character is sad about this.
5) The three protags and some new random people are going back to elf land so that Gawain can lead the combined forces.
Like I said though, the character interaction is more prevalent. Only problem is that the characters aren't really themselves in almost any of the book.
I think I like what the author tried with this one, but it just wasn't long enough, didn't present enough of what it was trying to, and didn't feel like it was even the same series as the first book. It was also just an entirely downhill journey of one bad thing leading to the next and ended on sort of a sour note as well.
Hopefully the third book shapes things up a bit, but given what I've seen of it so far I'm not exactly holding my breath.
The character interaction is significantly more prevalent which is something that was sorely lacking in the opening installment to the series. The price, however, is that there doesn't seem to be much happening at all.
The first book covers a span of two years. The protagonists' coming of age, initial wandering throughout the world, introduces many of the important characters within the world, and then the subsequent vengeful crusade, romance... etc. This book covers the characters travelling roughly one eighth the amount of the first, feels very short, and the entire thing can be summed up in about five sentences.
1) They set off something in Raheen that leaves Allazar with new knowledge/powers and grants Elayeen a new form of sight at the cost of her normal vision.
2) They slay some Morloch minions. Goth lord wizard bad guy, rhino thing, shapeshifter, another dark wizard guy.
3) They meet some refugees and honorable guards who they help escort to Jarn.
4) Elayeen is taken over by some cold indifference and essentially becomes a special pair of eyes with no personality - main character is sad about this.
5) The three protags and some new random people are going back to elf land so that Gawain can lead the combined forces.
Like I said though, the character interaction is more prevalent. Only problem is that the characters aren't really themselves in almost any of the book.
I think I like what the author tried with this one, but it just wasn't long enough, didn't present enough of what it was trying to, and didn't feel like it was even the same series as the first book. It was also just an entirely downhill journey of one bad thing leading to the next and ended on sort of a sour note as well.
Hopefully the third book shapes things up a bit, but given what I've seen of it so far I'm not exactly holding my breath.
January 4, 2015
captivating!!
June 9, 2013
Good book but didn't have a lot of action like King of Ashes did
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews